Couple charged with prostituting runaway

ST. PAUL (AP) — A Twin Cities couple is charged with prostituting a runaway teen with a developmental disorder.

A criminal complaint filed in Ramsey County says police were called to a downtown St. Paul hotel earlier this week where they found the teen who has Asperger syndrome and the developmental level of a 13-year-old. She had just turned 18. She told investigators she ran away from her home in Des Moines, Iowa, a week earlier and took a bus to the Twin Cities after meeting Tyree Jones online. Authorities say the 18-year-old Fridley man solicited some 30 men online to have sex with the teen at the hotel.

The St. Paul Pioneer Press says Jones and 22-year-old Bionca Mixon, of St. Paul, threatened to kill the teen if she left or called anyone.